


What Must Be Done

by SaraJaye



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Reality, Gen, Going to War, Goodbyes, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Promises, What if?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-29
Updated: 2013-12-29
Packaged: 2018-01-06 13:37:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1107494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In another reality, Kya must leave her daughter to fight in the war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Must Be Done

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaz/gifts).



"Do you have to, Mom?" Katara asked. "We need you. What if something bad happens to you?" Kya held her daughter closer, smoothing her hair back.

"Nothing's going to happen to me, I promise," she said. "I've been training for this for years, sweetie, and your father and I will keep each other safe." She still couldn't believe she was being allowed to do this, even in the Southern Water Tribe women weren't normally meant to fight alongside the warriors. Then again, most of the waterbenders had been female. They'd been their own unit until the Fire Nation had taken them captive.

Kya had never even imagined she'd need the fighting skills she knew she had. She'd been perfectly happy settling down as a wife and mother, but the warriors needed more people than ever. There hadn't even been a debate among the men, no one had so much as grumbled. She was an extra pair of hands, that's all that mattered.

"But it's dangerous," Katara mumbled. "You'll get hurt. What if Dad can't protect you because someone attacks him, or he's busy somewhere else?"

"He won't be, Katara. Your father and I won't leave each other's sides, and we'll have Bato and the rest of the warriors watching our backs," she promised. Katara sighed, pressing her face further into the fur of Kya's parka. She was only seven years old and she understood the war much too well for someone whose only concern should be making sure her brother didn't eat all the stewed sea prunes. Kya wished she could protect her and Sokka from this harsh reality, that she didn't have to go to war at all, but such wishes were foolish in a time like this.

She rocked back and forth, stroking Katara's hair and rubbing her back.

"I'll come back to you and your brother soon," she said. "I promise. This war can't last forever."

"Really?" Katara looked up with hopeful eyes. "And you'll write to me and Sokka every day?"

"Every day," Kya said, then reached behind her back and undid the clasp of her engagement necklace. She hadn't taken it off since the day Hakoda had given it to her, but he would understand. She pressed it gently into Katara's little hand, smiling.

"I want you to hold onto this, and wear it. Keep it warm, and take it as a promise that I'll come back to you and your brother as soon as the war's over." Katara held the necklace tightly, giving her a tearful smile.

"Thanks, Mom. I will."

The next day, she left Sokka and Katara with her mother-in-law and left with the men to fight the Fire Nation. Both children cried, but tried their best to smile as she made the same promise she'd made a dozen times over.

_I will be back._

Holding Hakoda's hand tightly, she prayed she would be able to keep that promise.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't want to focus too heavily on gender politics, mainly because canon never says whether the SWT is actually against women fighting so I wasn't sure. I only remember the NWT says "women are healers, men are benders" and that's it. So I kind of went with the "some militia just take whoever they can get" explanation.


End file.
